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Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton tops Republicans Scott Walker and Paul Ryan on their home turf in hypothetical matchups for president, according to a new Wisconsin poll by Marquette Law School.

Clinton leads Ryan 48% to 44% in the survey of 717 registered voters taken last Monday through Thursday.

The former secretary of state leads Walker by a larger margin, 50% to 42%.

Marquette pollster Charles Franklin said "it would be absolutely crazy" to think such numbers have much predictive value more than three years before the next presidential election.

But with Wisconsin in the unusual position of boasting two possible GOP candidates in 2016 - U.S. Rep. Ryan and Gov. Walker - the survey offers an early barometer of how voters in this state size up both men as national candidates.

Ryan outperformed Walker in two respects in the survey. The former congressman and 2012 vice presidential candidate did the best against Clinton in Wisconsin among five Republicans tested in the poll, who all trailed her by varying degrees. Besides Ryan, those GOP politicians were Walker, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.

And Ryan was also the top choice of GOP voters in Wisconsin for the Republican nomination in 2016.

Ryan was favored by 27% of 302 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents surveyed by Marquette, followed by Rubio at 21%, Walker at 16%, Christie at 11%, Paul at 7%, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 5% and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal at 1%.

There was far more consensus among Democratic voters in the state about who should be their party's nominee: 62% named Clinton as their choice, 13% named Vice President Joe Biden, 5% named Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and 4% named New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Clinton was the most popular figure in either party tested in the poll: 53% of all voters viewed her favorably, while 37% viewed her unfavorably. And she showed at least a modest measure of crossover appeal: Almost one in five Wisconsin Republicans (18%) viewed her favorably - twice as many as viewed Obama favorably.

The former first lady and New York senator led in every 2016 trial heat in the survey, topping Republicans Ryan by five points, Christie by six, Walker by eight, Paul by 14, and Rubio by 16.

"Wisconsin really is in a very unusual position of having not one but two potential candidates for the Republican nomination (in 2016)," said Franklin, who said today's numbers - near the start of the four-year election cycle - will provide "some perspective a year or two from now about how the race has evolved."

The fact that Clinton outperforms well-known Republicans in their own states is not a phenomenon confined to Wisconsin. She is almost universally known. And despite fielding criticism from the GOP since last fall over the government's response to the 2012 attacks on U.S. officials in Libya, she has enjoyed a very positive public image in recent years.

In recent polling by Quinnipiac, Clinton led Rubio in his home state of Florida. And she led Christie in his home state of New Jersey. New Jersey routinely votes Democratic for president, but Christie is popular with many Democratic voters and has sky-high approval ratings in the state.

Clinton also led Ryan and Walker in Wisconsin in a survey earlier this year by a different organization, Public Policy Polling. In that February survey, Clinton led Ryan by eight points and Walker by 13 in separate 2016 matchups.

The Marquette poll found little change from previous surveys in how Wisconsin voters view Walker's performance as governor: 51% approved and 45% disapproved. That's consistent with almost all the polling on Walker that Marquette has done over the past 12 months.

Obama's job rating in Wisconsin was identical to Walker's: 51% approved and 45% disapproved. Because the poll was completed last Thursday, it doesn't capture any public reaction to fresh controversies over IRS scrutiny of conservative groups and the Justice Department's seizure of telephone records from the Associated Press.

The Marquette poll's overall margin of error was plus or minus 4.4 percentage points. But questions involving the Republican and Democratic presidential nominations had a higher margin of error (between 5 and 6 points) because they were asked of smaller samples of voters in each party.